listening to you

something of you
floats in birdsong
rising from the trees

in scattered noises
down there on the road

cicadas' calling
an impromptu tide
rolling over me

something of you
is moving with
the abandoned grass

as heat slowly rises
in the morning

ubud 17 october 2014

notes made of borneo rains

I

the way i see it
the way you see it

stories
no one's really
simply stories

floating in the morning air
floating with dust that fills
the lungs of trees
before rainfalls pour

fables of floating
in the morning air
rising and falling
through dust

of absence come alive with words
words such as
you and me
sabah
mengalum island
the land below the wind

II

at the table across the floor
locals chain smoking
sipping ice-coffee
words again

conversation is a fire
we keep rekindling
heat where both
speaker and hearer
try to warm up

for it feels cold
suspended in mid-air
mountains below
light pools above
to rest alone
in the fold of clouds
invoking songs


 III

she writes to tell me
she needs more days
for pain to find her way
through the rocks
flow into a voice
run through the steppe

for now
we are part of a
longer poem
to come perhaps

for now we are left waiting
here at the bottom of this page
at the mercy of a finger
that alone decides
if what is left of us
shall one day reach the sea

kota kinabalu, 24 october 2014

take me to the other shore

day is dimming
across the strait

dying light that receives
early flicker of lamps
from java's shoreline
is still

is still the light that waits
is mute and still

still it rips through mist
shrouding land that falls
into abyss disappears

sense of something closing here
as distances carol
incarnate
undulations
pearly

voice
imbued by ocean speech
i hear you rise
cave in

i disgorge your vowels
one wave at a time


4 august 2013, gilimanuk

alter

dust on your shoulders
incense ash piling at your feet
not a flower to ornate your vase

bouddha
this oversight
is an indictment
to my state of mind

as without
so within
chaos merging
with chaos
seamlessly 

early morning breeze
passes through the window

ubud, 30 september 2014